Thursday, March 6, 2008

Did a lot of driving around last night since my better two-thirds had an appointment to get her hair cut. Of course, coming out of the hairdressers, she looked like her smashing usual self, which had me inwardly congratulating myself on how of a lucky man I am. The rest of the evening was relatively quiet, since when we got back home it was already time to give David 4.10 his bath.

I’m currently reading ‘Ysabel’ from Guy Gavriel Kay. For anyone not familiar with that author, I would wholeheartedly recommend looking him up. Some of his earlier works definitely contained a fantasy bent, but his most recent books read more like historical fiction than anything else. His prose is always impressive and eloquent and flows gently through your mind, never feeling forced or ‘dumbed-down’. His characters very much leap from the page, and he’s only become better at painting these vivid people over the years and infusing them with excellent and humourous dialogue. His latest work is a departure though, since it starts off in Aix, France during a present day timeline and focuses on a teenager named Ned, who is accompanying his father (professional photographer Ed Marriner) and his crew during a photo shoot of ancient cathedrals and churches. As usual, it’s extremely well written and compelling, and makes me ask myself why I waited so long to read it, since it had been sitting on my shelf for a few months.

Anyway, it’s a good read so far and it’s always a good sign when it leaves me wanting more.I didn’t get much of a chance to put in more time in Ratchet & Clank Future last night, so hopefully tonight I’ll have the opportunity to continue. David was more interested in Katamari Damacy last night, so we played that for a bit, but even that didn’t last all too long. After he went to bed, I initiated my wife to the ‘Totally Rad Show’ which I really like. I don’t think I could’ve picked a worst first episode to watch with her, since even though it was good, it was just so long that it felt like it dragged on and on. Typically, their shows clock in at about 45 minutes or so, but this one was 66 minutes in total, which was quite on the long side if you ask me. Granted, it was their 50th episode, but still, after a while it just dragged on long enough.

On another note, it looks like the movie industry had a record year in 2007, which really goes against their outcry about how piracy is killing their business model. I mean, how can we possibly take any of the MPAA’s claims seriously at this point when they ended up making 9.63 BILLION in 2007: a 5.4% increase over last year. Now that more and more people have high-speed cable or DSL connections, you’d think that we just might start to see a decline in regards to the amount of money they’re taking in, but that’s clearly not the case. Ars Technica has an interesting article on the subject, but it just fascinates me and I can’t wait to see how the Motion Picture Association of America will spin this little tidbit in order to make themselves look like the victims again.